The Mark of Athena
by Katniss Everdeen746
Summary: This is my version of the Mark of Athena, book 3 in the Heroes of Olympus series. I hope that you like it.
1. Chapter 1

Percy

Percy was anxious, looking up at the descending war ship. Although he was pretty sure that this wasn't a trick, the slim chance of it being exactly that, loomed in the back of his mind.

"Percy, are you feeling OK? You look a little worried." Hazel studied him with her big golden eyes. "You don't think that Octavian is right? You swore on your life Percy! If it is a trick-"

"It isn't a trick! It can't be. Annabeth is on that ship, I just know it." Percy reassured her. Percy didn't just say that for Hazel's benefit, he was trying to convince himself of what he hoped was true. What had to be true.

"OK Percy, we believe you" Frank said warily.

They didn't say anything more; instead they looked back toward the ship that had almost landed. The Romans were unsettled at the site of the massive war ship, but you could hardly blame them, the thing was gigantic! It almost took up one quarter of the fields of mars. At the very tip of the ship was the head of a bronze dragon that Percy recognised, but couldn't place the name, place or time of the sighting. He would have to find out later because right now the ship had landed and there was movement from within. The Romans readied themselves for the possible attack. The next thing he knew - a boy around the same age as him - jumped over the side of the massive war ship. He hovered in the air for a little, before planting his feet firmly on the ground. Everyone was stunned, and Percy couldn't help but wonder if this was Jason Grace, the one he had heard so much about, their lost hero.

"Hey" Jason said uncertainly.

The Romans quickly recovered from their shock and burst into an uproar of cheering as they surrounded him and lifted him onto their shoulders, he was too stunned by the sudden embrace to protest. They paraded him through the crowd until they came to Reyna and dropped him down onto the ground. Everyone fell silent.

Reyna stepped forward then embraced him in a bone crushing hug and said "welcome home Jason, welcome home."

The Romans cheered again, some coming up to him, giving him a slap on the back or a quick hug. After a few minutes of this he seemed to remember something and looked around him at his friends, his family.

"I am glad to be home." He announced in a loud voice so everyone could hear. "and I would like to thank you all for not attacking, and killing me and the war ship." There was a low chuckle the spread throughout the crowd. "But I didn't come alone," he continued. A murmur replaced the low chuckle within the assembled Romans. "Romans, I would like to present to you my friends from the Greek camp, Leo Valdez son of Vulcan, Piper McLean daughter of Venus and Annabeth Chase daughter of Minerva."

When their names were called they came down from the war ship and smiled and waved at the large group of Romans. Percy personally thought that, this was brave of them considering these people have been their sworn enemies since ancient times. The first boy Leo - the one who looked practically identical to Sammy, Hazel's past boyfriend – Jumped down with a stupid grin on his face, as he beamed at his potential enemies. Then the girl, Piper McLean came out and smiled, almost shyly. Percy was surprised her mother was the goddess of beauty and love. Although she was remarkably pretty – even if it was obvious she was trying hard not to be – she didn't seem like the usual stuck up type like the rest of her brothers and sisters were. Then last of all Annabeth came out. She was just as he had remembered her; blonde curly hair tied back into a pony tail, her sparkling grey eyes, she was the same old Annabeth Chase, his girlfriend.

When Annabeth came out she didn't smile or wave like the others, she simply looked taken aback by all the Romans and looked uncomfortable. It was as plain as day that she wasn't going to become best friends with the Romans, and Percy only hoped she wouldn't decide to pull out her dagger and start slashing away at them. Just then Juno's warning echoed in his mind.

'The one who will cause you the most trouble is the one closest to you – the one who hates me most'

'Annabeth? You never liked her now you're calling her a troublemaker? You don't know her at all. She's the person I _most_ want watching my back' he had replied.

'We will see, young hero. She has a hard task ahead of her when you arrive in Rome. Whether she is up to it… I do not know.'

For the first time doubt seemed to rise up within him as he realised that Juno might just be right.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Hello again! I was too eager to put off the next chapter so here it is. Hope you like it!**

**Please review and tell me what you think. Any advice would be most appreciated.**

**I do not own the P.J.O or the H.O.O series. **

Annabeth

It was a long time before Annabeth, Jason, Piper and Leo arrived at the Roman camp, but the previous delays for even begging the journey were even worse.

"We should have left two days ago! How long does it take to find the darn problem with the ship?" Annabeth was growing impatient with every passing minute.

"When you've gone through every little piece of metal on this large ship, found the problem and fixed it, then tell me how long it takes. I'm sure you would be much faster than me even though you didn't build it!" Leo remarked, fed up with her lack of patience.

Annabeth was taken by surprise, and was immediately disappointed in herself for yelling at him, for something that he had no control over. "Leo, I'm sorry. I just really want to see Percy again. I was just taking my frustration out on you, I shouldn't have, I'm sorry."

"Nah, that's OK. I can't blame you. You two were really close, you and Percy, huh" He replied.

She smiled "Yeah, we were."

Just then Jason came in with a big grin on his face. "They found it!"

"Who? Found what?" Annabeth looked up confused by his sudden outburst.

"A girl from the Hephaestus cabin. She found the problem; they're all there now, working on it. They said the ship should be ready in a couple of hours." Jason was obviously excited by the fact of returning home.

Annabeth couldn't help breaking into a broad grin. "Oh, that's wonderful!"

"Well I'd better go and help them. They'll never get it going without my help." Leo said jumping up and running past Jason and through the door. Not long after Leo came back embarrassed. "So, um where did you say they were?" Jason and Annabeth couldn't help cracking up, and whenever they tried to compose themselves they would look back at Leo's failed attempt at not looking embarrassed and start laughing all over again. By the time they had stopped, Leo looked rather annoyed but was still smiling at his own stupidity.

"Sorry man, um, there down the hall turn left then into the east hall way to the right." Jason said trying hard not to smile. Annabeth wasn't doing so well and could hardly supress her laughing.

"Thanks, thanks a lot. Some friends you turned out to be" He muttered as he left. Once he was out of ear shot they burst out laughing again.

They calmed down, but not before getting cramps in their sides. "I think I'll go and pack the rest of my stuff." Said Annabeth.

"Ok, I've just got to check up on some stuff. See you back here in an hour." He replied as he left the room.

"Yeah, see ya" She said

(Time has passed)

"Do you think they'll attack us any way?" Piper asked as they closed in on the camp.

"Well I should hope not, but I can't promise anything" Replied Jason "Romans are very suspicious and they wouldn't hesitate to attack if they thought their camp was in danger."

"Well that's reassuring" Piper said sarcastically.

As they slowly descended Annabeth, who was standing out on the bow or the prow of the ship (The front or the deck), could just make out the small figures of the Romans and could only hope that Percy was among them.

"Thank you for flying with 'The happy dragon'" Leo's voice was being projected through the microphone up at the wheel of the ship. "I am Leo Valdez your awesome captain. Have a lovely day and try not to be killed by Romans. In case this does happen, be assured that I will not take any responsibility what so ever. Over and out." Annabeth cracked a smile and went back inside with Jason and Piper.

Jason went out first; they could hear all the commotion from outside and listened for when they were to come out. When their names were called out they would jump down and smile and wave at the Romans, like Jason had suggested before he left, but Annabeth knew that she couldn't do this, instead she could only manage not to attack them, even though it was her first impulse. As she looked on, scanning the crowd, she finally spotted him. Windblown, jet black hair, sea green eyes and arms thrown across the shoulders of two Romans, a girl with curly brown hair and golden eyes and a boy with a baby face and an army stile haircut. Percy.

She beamed and ran toward him, ignoring everyone else. He smiled and opened his arms. Annabeth ran straight into them, relief, anger and joy all welling up inside of her. They stayed that way for a while, just holding each other, until Percy broke away and gave her a kiss.

"I missed you" He whispered in her ear.

"I missed you more" She said tears of joy running down her face. He smiled and wiped them away.

"No, I'm afraid _I _missed you more." And he planted another kiss on her cheek. Then a girl in a purple bed sheet interrupted them.

"I'm sorry to interrupt but we have a matter at hand that we need to discuss in private" She said eyeing the crowd. "I would like all Greeks and senior senators to meet in one hour. Everyone else back to training." She commanded.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Hi again! Hope you like this chapter. Sorry it's so short but I was having a really hard time trying to figure out what was going to happen. Anyways please review and tell me what you think.**

**I do not own the P.J.O or the H.O.O series.**

Jason

When Jason saw Annabeth run toward a guy, maybe one year older than himself, with jet-black hair and sea green eyes, he knew that this had to be the person he had heard so much about, their lost hero, Percy Jackson.

When the fields of mars had cleared, Reyna looked at the rest of us. The seven. "Well, so you're the ones who must save us all." She said in an almost distant voice. "OK, since we all seem to have an hour to kill why don't we give our 'friends' from the Greek camp a quick tour of our camp."

She looked at Percy expectantly. "Um, sure why not?" Percy said.

"OK, so it's settled. Everyone pair up" She suddenly had a thought and said "Jason, Percy. Might I have a word with you?"

They looked at each other and shrugged. "It's Ok with me. I wasn't planning on doing too much right about now." Percy said dismissively.

Reyna raised an eyebrow at Jason. "Yeah that's alright." Jason said off hand.

"Great! You may go now." She dismissed everyone else. They all left without any further discussion, to show or to be shown around the camp. Once they had gone Reyna turned and left the fields of Mars with Jason and Percy struggling to keep up, behind her.

Reyna pushed open the large doors and entered, Percy and Jason hurrying after her. Reyna flopped down into one of the two Praetors chairs while the other two looked awkwardly at the one remaining chair. Reyna saw the dilemma and told them to pull out one of the other seats. They obeyed and sat down.

After a few moments of an eerie silence Percy spoke up. "So, what did you want to talk about?"

Reyna served them both. "This quest." She finally began "how are you going to go about it?"

"I thought we were going to talk about this with everyone." Jason said in confussion.

"And we still are. But I wanted to discuss it first with you two. After all you two are the leaders, are you not?" She looked at Jason, then Percy and back again.

"You could say that." Jason said finally.

"OK, so what's your plan for when you reach Rome?"

"Well, I'm not sure about Jason, but I haven't really had that much time to think about it. The past few weeks I've been focusing on staying alive long enough to save camp Jupiter." Percy shrugged. Reyna looked over at Jason, expectantly.

"Not really. I got as far as getting to camp Jupiter before the world ends." Jason said embarrassed.

Reyna sighed and sat back in her chair muttering something about 'If all our lives depend on these fools, Gods help us.' She sat forward again and looked at them one at a time before finally speaking. "Well it looks like we have a long hour ahead of us."


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Hello! This chapter isn't my best but at least it's a long one. So hope you enjoy!**

**Please Review and tell me what you think.**

**I do not own the P.J.O or the H.O.O series.**

Piper

Piper looked around at the camp in awe. She had never seen anything like it. Piper couldn't help smiling when she saw Annabeth, equally in awe muttering things about the designs of the structures. Piper could almost see the gears turning in her head, and knew that ideas were appearing by the dozen. The girls had decided to go all together since it was an uneven number, leaving Leo and Frank to wonder the camp by themselves.

Although the scenery was very impressive, she couldn't stop her mind from wondering off. One of its favourite places to visit was what Jason, that girl named Reyna – that seemed to think too highly of herself – and Percy were talking about. It loved to think up crazy ideas that were so unbelievable that she couldn't help smiling to herself.

Hazel led them through the camp, sometimes stoping to point out one particular important building or area. At one point Piper thought that the camp would never end when Hazel suddenly stopped, Piper was so preoccupied on thinking there was no end to this camp that she almost ran straight into her, but Hazel hadn't noticed.

She sighed as she looked at the view. "This is my favourite spot. Isn't it just stunning?"

Piper caught her breath. She could see the whole camp from there. The fields of Mars that looked lush and green - like there had never been a raging war there - the camp - which looked much smaller than what she had thought – was bathed in a soft, golden glow the sunset had bestowed, making the camp look like it was made of gold. Gold! The very thought of it made a shiver run down her spine. But the sensation didn't last for long. When she looked out again at the golden city of New Rome - that's what it looked like – she forgot her initial fear and gazed out at the dazzling site. "It's beautiful" Piper breathed.

"I would always come up here when I felt scared or alone." She said softly "It would make me forget about everything that troubled me. I wished that I could stay up here forever, but… well I obviously couldn't. But that didn't stop me from coming up as much as possible." She sighed. "Well I suppose we should be heading back now; by the time it takes us to get back it'll be time for the meeting."

"Good idea. Let's get going." Annabeth agreed.

Once they had gone through the border security, walked around the city with people throwing names at the –Piper was pretty sure they weren't nice remarks either - reached the correct building – where the meeting was going to be held – Piper was exhausted. When they entered she was about to collapse before she slumped down into one of the chairs in the room, Annabeth and Hazel, one on each side of her. They were the last ones to arrive after Leo and Frank, So once they were seated the meeting commenced.

"Welcome Greeks to our camp." Reyna began "We are all gathered here to discuss the preparations of, this quest of yours." She seemed rather hurt at not being one of the chosen ones for such an important quest. Reyna opened her mouth to begin again "First we must decide whether this quest is to go forward at all. Any objections to this quest please speak now." A boy with wide eyes, carrying a stuffed toy in one hand and a sharp knife in the other, stepped forward. "I object!" he announced drawing everyone's attention. The moment he had opened his mouth, Piper knew that this boy – if that's what you'd call him – was someone who could move a whole crowd with a few words, and she immediately knew that the quest was in trouble. "I thought you might have something to say Octavian" Reyna muttered. Octavian ignored her and stepped forward.

"How can we trust these barbarians? These Greeks that have been our enemies since ancient times. If our ancestors couldn't trust them, why should we?" He looked out at his audience pleased when he saw some muttering in agreement. "So if we can't trust them not to kill us, how can we trust them to save our lives?" Piper could see that if someone didn't stop him he would have the entire camp turned against them.

Just then Percy stood up and came forward. "I'm afraid you'll have no choice. You can either trust us or die when Gaea wakes. No matter what she might say about keeping you alive if you take her side, she wipe you all out because your descendants of the gods and at the moment she wants nothing less than to destroy them. So once she does, do you think she'll just let you live? You have the blood of the gods; she would kill you without a second thought."

Octavian could see that he was losing what he had already managed to get. So he smiled, but it wasn't a genuine smile it was a smile that said '_I-will-get-you-one-day-Percy-Jackson-I-swear-it'_. So he opened his arms toward the small crowd that was seated within the room. "Do you seriously think we would take you word? Your one of them," He announced. Jason was about to say something but Octavian shut him off. "Not even you, Jason Grace. For all we know you're under the Greeks influence."

Piper could see this was going nowhere, so she did the only thing she could. She stood up and looked around at the small crowd and took a deep breath 'I can do this, it's not like I haven't done something like this before.' She told herself, then she opened her mouth and began to speak.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Hey! It's me again. So here is the next chapter sorry about it being so short (again). I know, I know I gotta work on that. But school started last week and I'm way behind in homework so your lucky I even got it done! Anyways Enjoy!**

**I do not own the P.J.O or the H.O.O series.**

Hazel

Piper's voice rang out across the room, "Stop!" she commanded. Everyone stopped shouting all at once and stared at her, clinging to her every word; even Octavian shut up and listened. She straitened then continued, "Thanks. Did you say your name was Octavian?" She said directing her question at Octavian. Her words held such power it was hard to ignore. He nodded, not entirely sure what to say. "Now what were you saying just now about objecting to the quest?"

He looked up at her, mystified. "I-I said that?" he stuttered "I don't remember saying that" he said sluggishly as if he were half asleep.

She smiled "Good. No one else had a problem did they?" she said flashing a bright smile. Her words hit like a ton of bricks, so that even if someone did have a problem with the quest, they couldn't say anything. Everyone immediately shook their heads and said stuff like 'Why would I have a problem with that?' Or 'No, way!'

She beamed at everyone "I knew you would agree!" then she sat back down and told Reyna to continue. Reyna shook her head, shaking the trance she had been in cased in. "What?" She said slightly dazed "oh, right. Since there are no more objections for the quest, we shall discus what we shall supply them."

Octavian was too much in a daze to say anything - after taking Piper head on - so no comments could be heard from his direction. Hazel had no idea how he could even remember how to stand, because even though Piper hadn't spoken to her directly, her memory was a little clouded. There were a few confused calls from the assembled Greeks and Romans; some of them remarked 'what do they need that they haven't already got?' some said 'Who cares? Just let them take what they want!' but some – that were obviously not recovered - cried 'Give them lots of jellybeans! Jellybeans are good for you.'

Hazel knew that they were no good and she suspected that Reyna did to when she shouted "Enough! I can see this isn't going anywhere fast so we shall see what we are able to supply them before they depart." With that she took one more look around and then dismissed us.

When they were finally outside the boarder – after being delayed by a certain God – hazel was able to finally talk to Piper.

"How the Hades did you do that?" Hazel exclaimed

"Do what?"

"You know. Back in there." She gestured back the way they had come

"Oh, that." Piper sighed "It's kinda complicated."

"Please?" Hazel pulled her best puppy eyes

Piper laughed "I'm serious! I was just charm-speaking, it's not lik-"

"CHARM-SPEAKING!" Hazel said thrilled "what is it? Is it some type of magic or spel-"

"Shhhh!" she said covering her mouth "If anyone finds out I was charm-speaking they'll attack us for sure!" Piper was looking around her making sure no one over heard them.

Hazel was still trying to speak, not fazed by Pipers hand over her mouth. So when she finally took her hand away Hazel began to ramble on again at the top of her lungs.

"Keep your voice down, for crying out loud!" Piper said in a harsh whisper

Finally getting the message, **(A/N: I know took her a while) **she stopped attempting talking and prised Pipers fingers away from her mouth. "Sorry." She whispered back "Wait I know somewhere we can talk! Follow me." Then she turned and strode off - as if they had nothing to hide – Piper scrambling after her.

**A/N: Come on people. REVIEW FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! I need to know if you like it or not! SO PRESS THE DARN BUTTON! That's what it's there for.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hi everyone! I'm sorry I haven't uploaded for a LONG time, but I've been VERY busy. So here is the next chapter, Enjoy!**

**(Ok, ok I know it's really short but I didn't know what to do in the chapter and I have been extremely busy so yeah) **

Leo

Leo was still unsure of what had just happened. Sure he had seen Piper charm-speaking before but it had never been directed at him. Not that she had spoken specifically toward him, but still he had to admit that Piper had improved a lot. When the meeting had finished and he had gone outside into the blinding sun, he spotted Jason just coming out and ran towards him.

"Hey man, how's it going? Some meeting huh."

"Huh?" Jason looked up in surprise "Oh hey Leo."

"Did you see Piper? She was like 'shut up Octavian and do what I say' and he was like 'I said that?'" Leo chuckled before noticing that Jason was silent. "Hey are you ok? What is it?"

Jason signed "It's nothing. I've just been thinking, that's all."

"Well, what were you thinking about?" Leo eyed him up and down. Jason was defiantly _not_ himself.

Jason signed again "It's just that… it's complicated" he gave up.

"Shoot"

Jason looked at Leo surprised then shrugged "Ok, if you insist… Well it's about Reyna-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Leo said holding up his hands.

Jason looked startled "W-what?"

"Is this going to be one of those 'I can't stop thinking about her. I think that I love her!' speeches? 'Cause if it is I don't want to know."

Jason just gaped at Leo as if to say 'Are you for real?'

"What? I'm not the mushy type, OK?"

Jason just rolled his eyes and shook his head, "You never change do you?"

"Uh… that's a good thing right?"

Jason didn't reply but instead just walked off muttering to himself.

"Right?" Leo said a little louder. When he realised that he wasn't going to get anything else out of Jason he shrugged, then looked around for something to do. The town (or whatever it was) looked pretty boring, like where was the fun in just sitting around and doing nothing. He felt sorry for all the people who had to _live_ here. If it was him he would have died of boredom years ago. 'Well lucky for this lot, I've arrived' He thought as a plan started to form in his mind.

**So there it is! Hope you enjoyed it! Well, all I have left to say is… Comment! Plz?**


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